Introduction: Exploring Moral Agency across Traditions

During recent decades, the revival of interest in character- and virtue-centered ethics has seen the emergence of a new focus on the problem of shaping character and acquiring a second nature. This crucially involves the question of moral agency. How do individuals succeed (or fail to succeed) in forming moral dispositions and moral capabilities needed for a well-lived life, and what role is played in this regard by external factors such as law, civil society, and education? In part, this refocusing is due to a steadily growing retrieval of philosophical traditions including ancient, medieval, and early modern thought, both Western and Eastern. The resources from the history of philosophy connect very effectively with longstanding debates about whether and how persons are responsible for states of character, whether states of character are amenable to revision once formed, and the role of character in a well-lived life.